MLA FORMATTING
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•Standard One Inch Margins
•First Page ONLY – Upper Left Hand Corner: Your Name, Your Professor’s Name,
the Course & Section Number, and the Date (Do not use the Insert Header Function
in your Word Processing Program, i.e. Microsoft Word)
•Every Page – Upper Right Hand Corner: Your Last Name and the Page Number (Use
the Insert Page Number Function in your Word Processing Program)
•Title Centered
•Double-Spaced
•12 Point Font, Times New Roman
AVOIDING DROPPED QUOTES &
INTEGRATING SOURCED
MATERIAL
 Introduce
Establish the Credibility of the Source
Material
 Explain
Reiterate the Quoted Material for
Clarity: “By this…” or “In other
words…”
 Integrate
Show the Relevance of the Source
Material to Your Thesis/Stance/Claim
DROPPED QUOTES
Example of a Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois,
Dropped and had three siblings. “Hemingway was an
abusive drunk.” He eventually moved to Kansas
Quote City and worked as a cub reporter. Hemingway
then moved to Toronto and then onto Europe,
where he met up with his literary counterparts.
This is where his excessive drinking habits and
violent behavior took form.
Example of an Dr. Fenstermaker, a renowned Hemingway
Integrated expert and tenured professor at Harvard
Quote University, said, “Hemingway was an abusive
drunk” (Smith 54). By this, he suggests that
Hemingway used alcohol not only to incite his
bitter rage, but also as a conflagrant to burn the
bridges between himself and his mentors. This
supports the stance that Hemingway did all he
could to break the ties with those who taught
him the craft.
STANDARD QUOTES
 Standard quotes are four lines or less
 You should not have more than 3-4
standard quotes on a single page.
EXAMPLE:
Dr. Fenstermaker, a renowned Hemingway
expert and tenured professor at Harvard
University, said, “Hemingway was an
abusive drunk” (Smith 54).
BLOCK QUOTES
B
D
C
E
A. Must be FIVE lines or more
B. Lead into a Block Quotes with a colon, not a comma
C. Indent the Block Quote in its entirety
D. Do not use Quotation Marks
E. The Period comes before the Parenthetical Citation
F. No more than ONE Block Quote per three pages
Parenthetical Citations with
Standard Quotes
Dr. Fenstermaker, a renowned
Hemingway expert and tenured professor
at Harvard University, said, “Hemingway
was an abusive drunk” (Smith 54).
1. 2. 3.
1. End Quote
2. Parenthetical Citation
3. Period
In-Text Citations with Standard
Quotes
Dr. Fenstermaker, a renowned
Hemingway expert and tenured professor at
Harvard University, said, “Hemingway was an
abusive drunk” (54).
When the author of the quote is the same as
the author of the article/book from which
the quote is found, you do not need to
include the last name of the author inside of
the parenthetical; all you need is the page
number where the quote was found.
Ellipses & Brackets
Ellipses are used to show information has been
removed or omitted
(Example found on previous slide)
 Brackets clarify pronoun/noun usage and can correct
verb tense issues.
EXAMPLE:
“He is considered the forefathr of modern thought and
the theory of naturalism” (Jones 824).
“[Freud was] is considered the forefather of modern
thought and the theory of naturalism” (Jones 824).
TITLES
 The titles of Longer Works (Books, Films, Albums,
Collections, Anthologies, Sitcoms…) need to be
ITALICIZED
Catcher and the Rye
 The titles of Shorter Works (Poem, Song, Short
Stories, Articles, Journals, Episodes…) need to be in
“QUOTES”
“The Story of an Hour”
Capitalize all words in a title except for Prepositions,
Articles and Conjunctions, unless the title starts or
ends in these types of words.
Works Cited
1. Alphabetized
(No Numbers or Bullets)
2. Hanging Indention
(The only full line of text
should be the first
line of each source;
each additional line of
a source is indented)
3. Works Cited
should head the
page
(No Bold, Underline or
Quotation Marks, just
plain old 12 point
Font, Times New
Roman)